USA -- Richard Nixon was in the White House, his "war on drugs" was in full swing, yet Big Tobacco was secretly exploring the possibility of becoming Big Pot. Newly discovered documents from tobacco company archives at UC San Francisco show that major companies in the cigarette industry investigated joining the marijuana business in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The companies were driven then by the same shift in public attitudes that is now pushing legalization around the country. One company even asked a federal counter-narcotics official to secretly secure marijuana from the government for research.

"We request that there be no publicity whatsoever," a Philip Morris vice president wrote in late 1969 to Milton Joffee, drug sciences chief at the Justice Department's narcotics bureau. "We will provide the results to you on a confidential basis, and request that you not identify in the form of any public announcement where the work has been done."

Joffee responded that Philip Morris could skip Food and Drug Administration review of its application for government pot. "I do not feel there is any bar to maintaining the confidentiality you request," he wrote.

The documents, discovered by public health researchers, were disclosed Tuesday in the Milbank Quarterly, a health policy journal. They not only shed new light on the Nixon era, but appear when some Wall Street analysts and health advocates say tobacco companies may again be considering the expanding market for legalized weed.

Of course it will be regulated and taxed. That’s actually part of the reason to want legalization, quality control and white market prices. Unless the fed goes crazy on the taxes (like they are with cigs) pot will still wind up cheaper.

6
posted on 06/05/2014 1:38:44 PM PDT
by discostu
(Seriously, do we no longer do "phrasing"?!)

Who knows. But that’s life with a legal product, you never know when the fed is going to go stupid. But even then you wind up with a black market like the untax stamped cig market, which isn’t nearly as violent as the current pot black market.

I doubt there will be more use. With it legal and regulated it actually gets harder for various classes to get than with it illegal. It’s a lot easier now for a teen to get pot than beer, because people selling beer have liquor licenses they wish to protect, and people selling are already breaking the law and don’t really care.

It’s really all about picking your poison. People that are going to smoke pot are going to smoke pot, the questions you need to ask yourself is would you rather the money go to Mexican drug cartels or the neighborhood liquor stores; and would you rather the seller have some sort of rules to follow or do whatever they want.

16
posted on 06/05/2014 2:01:47 PM PDT
by discostu
(Seriously, do we no longer do "phrasing"?!)

The WOD is probably doing more to erase the line than legalization ever would. At this point the government is a full fledged participant in most of the worst parts of the drug trade. They are an armed combatant, they pick sides (confidential informants), they help keep the prices artificially inflated, and periodically they kill innocent bystanders because they can’t read a map. Not to mention how much easier the poppy flow has gotten out of Afghanistan since we invaded. If anything legalized actually REDUCES the level of government involvement because a white market will be ruled by large corporations who already regularly bribe the government to get out of the way.

Singapore is a police state. If we have to become them to get people not to do drugs that’s the cure being worse than the disease.

18
posted on 06/05/2014 2:14:52 PM PDT
by discostu
(Seriously, do we no longer do "phrasing"?!)

Probably genetically engineered to have a variety of potencies, which already happens with pot and cigs. Not everybody wants the big buzz.

I’d guess it’ll go similar to home brew rules. Depending on the state you’re in you’re allowed to make certain amounts of certain types of booze, mostly you can’t sell without a license (some places you can sell very little), some places you can’t even gift.

I think the only people who expected a free for all were the anti-legalization crowd. All the pro-legalization people I know consider regulation and taxation to be part of what they want. Turning drugs into a profit center for the government is better than them being a budget black hole, and if alcohol and smokes tell us anything the BEST way to keep kids off drugs is to sell them at the liquor store.

20
posted on 06/05/2014 2:31:54 PM PDT
by discostu
(Seriously, do we no longer do "phrasing"?!)

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